The Speonk to Montauk Signalization Project

One of the "last frontiers" for Manual Block territory on the LIRR has been the portion of the Montauk Branch east of Speonk.  Back in February I went through the differences between Manual Block and Automatic Speed Control.  In the lead-up to the looming PTC-mandate, the LIRR is looking to chip away at those last remaining sections of MBS territory on the railroad.  In the past decade, the West Hempstead Branch was brought out of the dark ages in 2009 as part of the rehabilitation of VALLEY interlocking, the LIRR solved the issue of MBS lingering on the Lower Montauk Branch by simply wiping that part of territory off the LIRR's map last November.  And while they'd love to give the Mainline east of Ronkonkoma the same treatment they gave the Lower Montauk, they're not going to get away with it, so the LIRR has applied to the FRA for an exemption from the PTC regulations.  The lone remaining segment of track, the Montauk Branch between Speonk and Montauk, will be joining the rest of the railroad in ASC territory as part of the long-coming Speonk to Montauk Signalization Project.

The project is attempting to do just what it says: signalize from Speonk to Montauk.  Currently, Manual Block territory begins at SK 3 interlocking in Speonk and continues all the way east to Montauk with block limit signals in place at WH (Westhampton), ND (Hampton Bays), SN (South Hampton), BH (Bridgehampton), AG (Amagansett), and MY (Montauk).  There are currently passing sidings at all of these locations, plus East Hampton (which doesn't have a block limit) and meets occur at these various sidings under MBS rules only during the summer when the LIRR runs lots of extra trains for the masses that swarm them.  Meets in MBS territory take lots of time, since everything is slow and the switches are hand thrown and if the train is late you could be waiting quite a while since the next passing siding is still quite a ways away.

Pretty soon signals like these ones seen at SK interlocking
in Speonk will be installed at Hampton Bays,
Southampton, Amagansett, and Montauk. 
(Photo credit: YouTube user jkrspecnet)

While MBS rules being in effect east of Speonk doesn't necessarily cause the delays in the fist place, when the delays do start, having meets in MBS territory only makes things much, much messier and the delays snowball from there.

Included in the notes for the LIRR's November Committee Meeting, the railroad announced that they had [finally] awarded a contract for an amount not to exceed $20,825,093 to Ansaldo STS USA (ASTS) to design and implement a signal system between Speonk and Montauk.

According to the action item, the project will include the following:

• New interlockings at Hampton Bays and Southampton
• New control points at Amagansett and Montauk
• 38 new Grade Crossing Huts
• Converting existing switches at Westhampton, Bridgehampton, East Hampton, and Amagansett to electric locks with derails.
• A new ASC test loop at west end of Montauk station.

We will go through each one one-by-one:

New interlockings at Hampton Bays and Southampton

Trains meeting at Hampton Bays/ND on a rainy,
delay-ridden Summer Friday.

As part of the project, the LIRR will install two new interlockings at Hampton Bays (HB) and Southampton (SH).   Under the current schedules, meets are usually only held at these two locations.  Hampton Bays/ND sees a handful of meets on Summer Fridays and Southampton/SN sees meets only on Summer Sundays.  This project will include signals and automatic switches for the handful of points at these two locations.

Having interlockings at these two locations will help things during the summer, since trains can pass by each other in a matter of minutes instead of having to get down, unlock, throw, and relocked switches among the other technicalities of MBS signalling. 

On December 18th and January 1st I'll have Interlocking Previews of these two locations, so I'll get into more particulars as we get closer.

New Control Points at Amagansett and Montauk
It seems like the LIRR is looking to do this project "on the cheap" and only spring for interlockings only where they are necessary.  Since under current schedules, the LIRR only has scheduled meets at SN and ND, they chose those two (and only those two) places for interlocking.  The other sidings along the way will not become interlockings.  More on what's going to happen to those is coming below, but the gist of it is that they are not becoming interlockings, and if the LIRR is going to be forced to move meets to these other locations, they will not be able to handle them as quickly as if it were a regular interlocking.

I am not exactly sure of the difference between an "Interlocking" and a "Control Point" in this context.  I tried e-mailing the MTA about it about four weeks ago when the news first came out,  but they never got back to me.  But my understanding of the difference is this: a "control point" is merely a signal location.  There aren't any automatic switches operated remotely by a tower, it's merely a signal there by itself that will protect the passing siding at AG and the main at MY (whatever that means).  I will poke the MTA again and try to get a more concrete answer soon.

38 New Grade Crossing Huts

The south leg of the Montauk Wye, showing the 39th
grade crossing east of Speonk.
(Photo credit: Al Castelli/TrainsAreFun.com)

Grade crossing huts will be going in at the Montauk Branch's 38 grade crossings east of Speonk.  In actuality, there are 39 grade crossings on the Montauk Branch, but presumably they are excluding the Industrial Road crossing that tramples over the south leg of the Montauk Wye.  It's a low-use road that goes over an even lower-use wye, and the crossing is unprotected already, so I don't think they need to spend the big bucks for a crossing that only sees trains on very rare occasions.

Converting existing switches at Westampton, Bridgehampton, East Hampton, and Amagansett to electric locks with derails
These four are the other switches along the branch that will not become interlockings.  They will become electric lock switches which are hand-thrown switches that are held in place by electrically powered locks.  This will only shave a tiny bit of time off meets if they are forced to be moved to these locations since they won't have to chisel the six inches rust off the existing locks to get the keys in, but it doesn't give them nearly as much flexibility as they should be giving themselves by making these interlockings.

I can understand them not making Westhampton and East Hampton interlockings since in order to use WH's siding you need to bypass the station, and they were never able to hold meets at East Hampton anyways, but Bridgehampton and Amagansett should have definitely been included as interlockings to add much needed flexibility.

A new ASC test loop at west end of Montauk station
Since all trains originating at Montauk would now be operating in ASC territory for their entire run, trains leaving Montauk would have to test their ASC systems before departing, so this new loop would facilitate that.

In all, we are still a ways away from this project being finished.  When I peered of the platform at Montauk this morning before getting on my train I didn't see and signals being tested, but there has been some preliminary work done for the project in the previous years leading up to this contract.  Last summer, the LIRR dug trenches and conduits were put in for signal cables at the sites of the two future interlockings (HB and SH) and some of the bases for the signals were installed too.  Back in 2008 when the LIRR ran cables from Patchogue to Speonk, they also ran the cables all the way out to Montauk [presumably] in preparation for this project.

According to rumors, some of the signals and switches could be going in as early as this spring, but it is unclear weather they will go in that fast.  Hopefully, if they don't get them in this spring they will have as much ready as possible for the summer of 2015, as it's badly needed.

As far as travel times go, I wouldn't expect much improvement in the day-to-day running times on the Montauk Branch.  Schedule padding for meets on summer Fridays and Sundays might be able to get cut down a tad, but knowing the reliability of those trains, I doubt the LIRR is going to be economizing on those times if they can help it.  With the project, the LIRR will be able to set the speed east of Speonk back up to 65mph as it was knocked down to 59mph by the FRA two years ago.  There won't be any improvement in running times by the increase in speeds as there wasn't any dis-improvement in running times back when they lowered them (in fact, I remember the first day the speeds were lowered to 59mph train 2716 was three minutes early into Montauk...)

I will naturally keep you updated as we go along.  It will be interesting to drive up to Montauk one morning and see a bright signal shining at the other end of the yard and hopefully reliability will improve, but that's another topic for another day.